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French
Etymology
From Middle French ceste, from Old French ceste, from Vulgar Latin *ecce ista, feminine of *ecce iste.
The loss of internal /s/ triggered compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Due to the unstressed position of this pronoun, however, the length was soon lost again, which explains the spelling without a circumflex (though the form cête was occasionally used). Compare notre and le nôtre.
Pronunciation
Determiner
cette f
- feminine singular of ce
Further reading
Latin
Pronunciation
Verb
cette
- second-person plural present active imperative of cedo (“give (it) to me!”)
References
- “cette”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- cette in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.